Opportunity Cost

Economists often say, “There isn’t such thing as a free lunch.” This means to get one thing, we usually have to give up something else we want. In other words, people face trade-offs. Making decisions requires trading off one goal against another. The concept of “people face trade-offs” is the first of Gregory Mankiw’s ten principles of economics.

Opportunity costs are an important aspect to consider when making plans whether to go to college full time or not. An opportunity cost is essentially a decision between two conceivable choices where you judge the advantages of one decision over the other. You can decide to do this or you can decide to do that. I never weighed the scale between college and a job statically, but the result of my choices has affected me greatly.

Define the concept of scarcity: Scarcity: The goods available are too few to satisfy individuals' desires. Scarcity is a central concept in economics. Resources are scarce if any individual would prefer to have more of that good or service than they already have. Most goods and services are scarce - those that are not are known as free goods. Where goods are scarce it is necessary for society to make choices as to how they are allocated and used. Economists study (among other things) how societies perform the optimal

Sexton (2013) refers to opportunity cost as the chance given up because another choice was made instead. That means if I’m faced with two options and I can only choose one, the one I didn’t choose is the opportunity cost.

* Nobel Prize–winning economist Ronald Coase noted,“The cost of doing anything consists of the receipts that could have been obtained if that particular decision had not been taken.”

Define the opportunity cost of getting your degree by analyzing what steps and economic factors a potential student must make when choosing to pursue an education. Given your answer, is getting a formal college education worth your opportunity costs? Why?

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are over 400 electrocutions in the United States each year, and of those about 100 are children. In 2011, an estimated 21,300 reported U.S. non-confined home structure fires involving electrical distribution or lighting equipment resulted in 295 civilian deaths, 840 civilian injuries, and $822 million in direct property damage. These numbers are very alarming as no child nor home deserve to be harmed, especially from a cause that can be prevented. These statistics and our desire to eliminate electrical problems as a whole is what drove us to developing our product, Socket Stop.

Sports is one of the largest recreational activities in canada, with over 2 million kids aged 5 to 14, took part in sports. However, our government has decreased its funding over sports. From 2014 to 2015, 201.98 million dollars were funded but from 2015 to 2016, only 196.78 milion dollars were funded on sports. Moreover, sports participation of kids is declining. Boys now are less likely to regularly participate in sports than they were back in 1992 and those who do compete are involved in fewer sports. The decline rate will continue unless our government promotes sports heavily, through schools and community sport programs. Our governent should dedicate more money on these programs because sports are mainly promoted by such means, sports have heath benefits and sports make us smarter.

Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative in a decision. Imagine that you have $150 to see a concert. You can either see "Hot Stuff" or you can see "Good Times Band." Assume that you value Hot Stuff's concert at $225 and Good Times' concert at $150. Both concerts cost $150 per ticket, but it would take you a couple of hours to drive to Hot Stuff's concert and you have to be in school (the next) morning for an exam. Good Times' concert is right here in town. Explain how you would assess the opportunity cost of seeing Good Times in concert. What is the opportunity cost of going to Good Times' concert?

In the last few months, I have been studying the market of clothing manufacturing heavily. From quality to fabric cost, the whole idea of clothing manufacturing is very appealing to a young man that would like to pursue a career in graphic and architectural design. I will be sharing my personal experience with clothing manufacturing, as well as the differences between trade-offs and opportunity costs.

What do economists mean by opportunity cost? According to this definition, is there anything that does not have an opportuntiy cost?

We live in a finite world. No matter how seemingly bountiful the quantity of our natural resources may be or how carefully human try to conserve them, if we keep using them, they eventually are going to run out. Our tastes for goods and services are virtually limitless and this creates scarcity. Like the Rolling Stones song says, "You can’t always get what you want." Because we can’t have it all, we’re forced to make choices. When we making a particular decision, we forsake opportunity to choose the alternative option.

The fact that every decision contains a trade-off is not only a basic economic principle, but a fact of life, true on societal level and on an individual level. By definition, if you make one choice, you lose out on the potential benefits of all the other choices you passed up on. If a country decides to put its resources into medical research, less resources will be available for welfare, defense, education etc. There is a plethora of examples I can give from my life to demonstrate this principle. The clearest to me is college. I could have invested the money I have spent on college and could have possible became rich, but realizing the chances of that are slim, chose to go to college instead.

People must make choices between different items because the resources necessary to fulfil their wants are limited. These decisions are made by giving up (trading off) one want to satisfy

Scarcity is the fundamental challenge confronting all individuals and nations. We cannot always get what we want that is why we have to prioritize and allocate our limited income, time, and resources. Societies have developed different broad economic approaches to manage their resources. Economists generally recognized four basic types of economic systems,